Chapter Text
He didn't even feel when his head lay on something firm but warm. Until that something spoke.
"And here I thought I rode enough. Clearly I should've given you more work if you have the energy to be here instead of at home, in bed"
The young doctor immediately jumped in his seat, startled with the sudden presence while a scream escaped his mouth, filling the whole auditorium.
Everyone's heads snapped in their direction immediately. Even the movie stopped and the lights turned on — something Chse had no idea was even possible in the cinema. They probably thought it was some kind of medical emergency as no one normally screamed during a romantic comedy.
Chase's face turned red as he felt the annoyed glances from all people once they realised he was fine. He his his face in hands. "Oh my god" he groaned, before looking up at House. "What the hell are you doing here?" he asked, annoyed.
House completely ignored him and turned to the other man.
"What are your plans towards my employee?" he asked.
Chase sighed. "House, please, this is a cinema, we're going to get kicked out if you don't stop talki—"
House ignored him completely, still looking at the other guy. "You're planning to marry him? His daddy is dead, you know, in case you wanted to ask him for his son's hand. Wait, does it put me in charge? Ouch, you don't want ask me for the blessing" he joked.
Soon a cinema security came over. "I'm sorry, we're going to have to ask you three to leave, you're being a disturbance"
Chase's boyfriend got up. "Great..." he muttered. "Just great..."
"Shit..." Chase mumbled before getting up and following him out.
And House limped out, following the two of them.
The argument was already ending by the time was there.
Well, it was hardly an argument, Chase wasn't yelling. He wasn't even talking. He was trying to but it was hard to get a chance to.
"Look, I'm sor—"
"No! No no no, I don't care! I don't care if you're sorry, I'm done with it! I'm done with your crazy boss! And I'm tired with you acting like a fucking princess! Either you have a time to date or not! You just wasted my time! You're definitely not worth all that hassle. Not with your crazy boss being the part of the equation. Sorry, you might be pretty and sex is good, but no one is pretty and good in bed enough to make up for all this madness! Have fun working for that lunatic! Either quit your job and call me back or you deserve each other!" he yelled before turning to leave.
Chase just stood there, watching him go.
House watched him closely, analysing each tensed muscle, each facial expression.
"You okay?" he asked, even though the answer was obvious. No, he wasn't.
Chase glared at him.
"You're miserable. You're a sociopath. You're unable to make a single healthy connection with another human being."
House stood there in silence, just letting him going. It wasn't hurt him. It probably would a tiny bit, if the kid meant it. But he didn't. He just needed to let out the anger he felt towards him. He deserved it and needed it, it was healthy. Or at least he thought so, he wasn't psychiatrist. So he stood there and let him.
"You lie to yourself" Chase continued. "You tell yourself that you don't need the human connection, that you're better off without it. But you're not, the lack of it makes you miserable. So, insetad of fixing it, you mess up lives of the people around you. Because then the're as miserable as you so you get the illusion that evryone is as awfully miserable like you! And if they are, they'll stick around you because any well adjusted person would've already left you!"
"Yes. You done?" he asked calmly, the whole tantrum not moving him at all. It was empty anyway.
"No. I hate you" he added, turning to leave.
"No, you don't" he said calmly, watching him leave.
Chase was avoiding him as much as possible for the next few days. He was mad, rightfully so.
Cameron was passive aggressive towards House, showing her annoyance and dismay in her own way.
Foreman didn't seem that moved by the whole situation, but that wasn't because he was on House's side — no, not at all, he just ddn't think well of House, so he wasn't really surprised.
Wilson walked into House's office. The diagnostician was sitting with his feet on the desk, and holding a dark envelope, taking out some photographs from it and running them through the shredder, one by one.
"You really messed up, you know?" Wilson said. "I don't I've ever seen Chase so mad at you"
"Oh, really? Gee, thanks for the heads-up, I haven't noticed" House replied sarcastically.
"Any plans to fix it?"
"Nope, no reason to. He's not mad enough to leave — if he was, he'd have quit the job already. He's going to be mad and sulk for a while, then everything will be back to the normal" he said calmly.
"Why did you do this?"
"Ask Chase, he had given me a whole speech explaining why. Pretty sure he won't mind doing a reprise. Just in case though, I can summarize it. I'm a jerk and sociopath" He continued shredding the photos.
After a while of silence, he sighed. "He wasn't good for him" he stated.
Wilson raised his eyebrows.
"Don't look at me that way" House immediately added. "An employee with a lousy boyfriend is an unproductive employee. It's a simple calculation" he said.
He continued shredding the photos.
Wilson finally got curious. He snatched the envelope and started looking at the remaining photos.
A few of them were Chase and another man. Clearly the boyfriend.
He glared at House shocked. "You had them followed by a detective?!" he asked, shocked.
"No, not them. Just him. I already know everything about Chase"
"What— But— Why?" Wilson asked, and contined going through the photos.
Oh.
The same man, but now not with Chase. There were at least three other people he clearly dated, probably none of them aware of each other.
"Why don't you show him this? He'd immediately forgive you, he'd realise you had the reason t—"
"I don't care what he thinks of me, he'll calm down anyway"
"Huh."
House looked up. "What?" he asked, annoyed.
He'd heard that 'huh' so many times, he knew exactly what it meant. The realisation about his motives being more pure than he would like to admit. And now he was going to rub it into his face.
"You don't want Chase to find out about the reason. You don't want him to find out he got cheated on. As long as he'd mad at you, sure it was your fault, he doesn't start digging, wondering what went wrong?"
"And why would I want to do that? Why would I want him to be mad at me instead of this scumbag?"
"You wouldn't. And you would tell him everything. As long as you'd be sure he was going to blame the boyfriend" Wilson said. "But a lot of people start blaiming themselves after breakups. Finding out he was being cheated on could make him wonder if it was his fault, if he wasn't good enough. As long as you are the one to blame, no one else is" he added. "You lied about not caring what he thinks of you. You do. But you also care more about what he thinks of himself"
House rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sounds exactly like me" he said sarcastically.
"Yes. It does" Wilson replied. "Caring about that kid and protecting him from getting hurt, then being too proud to admit it, sounds exactly like you" he added before turning to leave. "Despite everything you say, you're a big softie" he added with a smirk, before leaving.